Hi Iain,

So many questions seem fundamentally rhetorical, but may not be. Which is better, belt or suspenders, 9mm or 0.45 cal., mustard or mayo? In the end the answer always seems to be, "It depends." But, as others have pointed out already (albeit in more direct terms), there is definite merit to wearing both a belt and suspenders.

In terms that may be a bit more immediately and intimately meaningful to you, as an assembler programmer you probably think about your code in terms of bits in registers. When you write the opcode "MOV A, R2" you probably don't think about the function of a shift register. You probably don't think about the difference between a D flip flop and a JK flip flop, and you probably don't think about the P-N junctions involved. You probably don't think about the voltages at all, thinking instead in terms of 1's and 0's. If you did, you'd be wasting a lot of time. All of those electronic details have been worked out so all you have to do is write the instructions.

Learning C is simply taking the next step. You will no longer have to think about how to find the square root of a number. Instead of thinking about it as an algorithm, you can think of it as just another function. And normally, except in rare cases where a few machine cycles make the difference, that's all that's required.

This brings up the question, "When do you stop?" Personally, I would not recommend learning any other HLL's unless you have a specific need or desire. (Sorry Steve. If it helps to assuage the offense, you can remember that this is from the only person I know of who was stupid enough to learn COBOL.) Specific jobs notwithstanding, if you are proficient in both assembler and C, you are one "loaded for bear" embedded systems programmer.

And that's my two cent's worth.

Joe